01 July 2010

Google will begin covering the extra tax burden assumed by gay and lesbian employees when their partners receive domestic partner health benefits, reports The New York Times. These employer-provided benefits are considered taxable income—which heterosexual, married couples do not have to pay.

Under federal law, employer-provided health benefits for domestic partners are counted as taxable income, if the partner is not considered a dependent. The tax owed is based on the value of the partner’s coverage paid by the employer. On average, employees with domestic partners will pay about $1,069 more a year in taxes than a married employee with the same coverage, according to a 2007 report by M. V. Lee Badgett, director of the Williams Institute, a research group that studies sexual orientation policy issues. So Google is essentially going to cover those costs, putting same-sex couples on an even footing with heterosexual employees whose spouses and families receive health benefits.

The company began to look at the disparity after a gay employee pointed it out, said Laszlo Bock, Google’s vice president for people operations. Google, by the way, says its benefits team seriously considers any suggestions on how to expand its coverage.

The new policy is effective today and the increase will be retroactive to January 1. The information technology behemoth will also make several other changes to benefit LGBT employees, such as including domestic partners in its family leave policy.

Google also donated money in the fight against Proposition 8. It's great they're socially responsible and attempting to equalize their suite of employee benefits. Here's looking to the day when that inequality is resolved.

HIV rates decline in South Africa? New data suggest a 35% drop in the rate of new infections. "Research discovered that 1.3% of 15 to 49-year-olds contracted the diseases between 2005 and 2008, compared to 2%
among the same group between 2002 and 2005."

Pioneering black film director Oscar Micheaux honored on a
new postage stamp. Micheaux was born in 1884 and ecame the first black to produce a movie and later introduced the actor
Paul Robeson in 1924.

Wisconsin court rules gay parents do not have full parental rights. "A woman who raised two adopted children for years in a same-sex
relationship is not considered their parent under Wisconsin law, an
appeals court ruled Thursday. The court ruled that only the woman's former
partner is their parent since the adoptions were done under the
partner's name. 'It's another slap in the face to gays and lesbians that we're not
equal. We're not parents,' said the woman's attorney, Michele Perrault. "

23 June 2010

On Tuesday, the Obama Administration announced that it would re-interpret the Family Medical Leave Act to benefit same-sex couples with children. The Administration will order businesses covered under the 1993 law to extend unpaid family leave for employees to care for sick or newborn children of same-sex partners.

The U.S. Department of Labor today clarified the definition of “son and daughter” under the Family and Medical Leave Act to ensure that an employee who assumes the role of caring for a child receives parental rights to family leave regardless of the legal or biological relationship.

The FMLA allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period to care for loved ones or themselves. The 1993 law also allows employees to take time off for the adoption or the birth of a child. The administrator interpretation issued by Nancy J. Leppink, deputy administrator of the department’s Wage and Hour Division, clarifies that these rights, which provide work-family balance, extend to the various parenting relationships that exist in today’s world. This action is a victory for many non-traditional families, including families in the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender community, who often in the past have been denied leave to care for their loved ones.

"No one who loves and nurtures a child day-in and day-out should be unable to care for that child when he or she falls ill," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. "No one who steps in to parent a child when that child’s biological parents are absent or incapacitated should be denied leave by an employer because he or she is not the legal guardian. No one who intends to raise a child should be denied the opportunity to be present when that child is born simply because the state or an employer fails to recognize his or her relationship with the biological parent. These are just a few of many possible scenarios. The Labor Department’s action today sends a clear message to workers and employers alike: All families, including LGBT families, are protected by the FMLA."

The reinterpretation will not allow gay and lesbian employees to care for same-sex partners. That is due to the Defense of Marriage Act.

In other news: The Williams Institute (pdf) estimates the DOL ruling could impact "as many as 51,000 families ... and approximately 102,000 children."

22 June 2010

President Barack Obama spoke for about 15 minutes at the White
House LGBT Pride Reception earlier this evening. The President spoke to a group of about 300 attendees, smaller than last year's event, and mostly state/regional and youth leaders, as opposed to national activists and policy makers.

The President also briefly mentioned larger ticket items such as repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, passing the Employment Nondiscrimination Act and the recent action taken on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Obama told the crowd: "Here’s the bottom line: We have never been closer to ending that discriminatory policy.”

"The fact that we have activists here is a reminder that change
never comes—or at least never begins—in Washington," President Obama said. "It
is when ordinary people out of love for a mother or a father, a son or a
daughter, or a husband or a wife, speak out against injustices that
have been accepted for too long."

Video, more photos, the read the transcript and a partial list of invitees AFTER THE JUMP ...

"The policy will be set forth in a ruling to be issued Wednesday by the
Labor Department’s wage and hour division, the officials said. Under a 1993 law, people who work for a company with 50 or more
employees are generally entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for
a newborn or for a spouse, son or daughter with 'a serious health
condition.' The new ruling indicates that an employee in a same-sex relationship can
qualify for leave to care for the child of his or her partner, even if
the worker has not legally adopted the child. The ruling, in a formal opinion letter, tackles a question not
explicitly addressed in the 1993 law. It is one of many actions taken by
the Obama administration to respond to the concerns of gay men and
lesbians within the constraints of the Defense of Marriage Act, which
defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman as husband and
wife."

The announcement will be formally made tomorrow by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

The new policy change will not allow to gay and lesbian employees to care for same-sex partners, again, due to the Defense of Marriage Act. And this is a policy change, not a legislative change, so the policy can be dropped by the next Administration.

The White House boasts a long list of accomplishments to tout during meetings with gay and lesbian organizations, but their reach is limited. For instance, Obama signed a hate crimes bill into law, expanded benefits for partners of State Department employees and ended the ban on HIV-positive persons from visiting the United States. He referenced families with "two fathers" in his Father's Day proclamation last week and devoted 38 words of his State of the Union address to repealing "don't ask, don't tell," the ban on gays serving openly in the military.

There's reason for the frustration. Obama's campaign pledged to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," yet that goal remains years away. His Justice Department invoked incest in a legal brief defending the traditional definition of marriage, prompting some gay donors last year to boycott the Democratic National Committee. And just last week, a committee at his Health and Human Services Department recommended the nation retain its policy barring gay men from donating blood. 'Two wars, a financial crisis, now an oil spill, plus a fundamental unwillingness to act boldly on gay rights, have rendered Obama agenda-less on this issue,' said Richard Socarides, who advised Clinton on gay policies.

Obama's allies say the small-bore changes are the best activists can hope despite Democrats controlling the White House, the Senate and the House. 'The reason why these policy changes are important is because we do not have ironclad LGBT majorities in either house of Congress,' said Fred Sainz, a vice president at the Human Rights Campaign, Washington's largest gay rights organization. 'People wrongly assume that having Democratic majorities in Congress means that your legislative goals will be met. That's not the case,' Sainz said.

Of course, Fred.

Looking forward to this afternoon's White House LGBT reception: As was the case with last year's reception, the gust list has remained closely guarded. But the invitees will not include the leaders from national groups such as HRC, reports the Washington Blade. "[I]nvitations generally were restricted to the heads of state equality groups, members of the LGBT community with compelling stories and a contingent of LGBT youth.... Leaders of state equality groups who were invited to the White House Pride reception and said they want to hear Obama speak about issues affecting LGBT people in the places they represent."

Constance McMillen is among those invited. More news, pictures and hopefully video later.